don't lose hope (move on)
by Xephonia
Summary: 62 hours after the outbreak, Kaito is visited by a friend. (zombie apocalypse au)


All he does nowadays is to hunt.

Hunt and destroy and watch _them_ keep destroying things, just to destroy _them_ and be no better.

 _At least I have a consciousness._

He tries to remember what day it is, but he keeps forgetting.

"Orbital, how many days have passed?"

"K—Kaito-sama! You're awake? It's been around 62 hours since the outbreak."

"62 hours, huh?"

62 hours that sometimes feel like forever.

(But 'forever' is not enough to forget what happened.)

62 hours that made him lose his home, his friends and Haruto.

He remembers Haruto running back to save their father, their father who had already been bitten, and Kaito was trying to hold him back but—

(Kaito still remembers the shock in Haruto's eyes right before the metal pillar crashed down on him.)

—too late, and all that was left for Kaito was to put out of his misery.

Kaito is here though, Kaito is alive. Kaito has seen Chris and his brothers turn into monsters, a lot like in the movies that Thomas always insisted on watching, and Kaito wonders if it's irony; but Kaito is alive and not a zombie.

He wants to think Mizael might be alive, too; that Mizael wouldn't let himself get bitten.

"Orbital. Show me the map."

"U—Understood!"

The map shows phone signals. Some have been unmoving since the outbreak, like Yuuma's (who probably forgot his phone at home again), Rio's and Mizael's (Kaito is not sure what he should think about that).

Others, like Ryouga's, keep moving.

(Kaito doesn't hold his breath on Ryouga _not_ being a zombie.)

Normally, Kaito would go check up on them, but he also has to keep moving from building to building to keep Orbital run on the emergency power systems that were left behind.

Orbital is probably the most reliable comrade as it is, because he's made of metal, he can be fixed; he doesn't break down from psychological stress, he doesn't suddenly die on Kaito and he doesn't turn into a monster.

Ryouga's signal is... close.

"Close the map and get ready for battle." Kaito puts his water bottle back into his bag— he didn't even bother getting the rest out. "We might be getting a visitor."

* * *

Exactly seven minutes later, Kaito hears a loud thump outside.

Someone or something is trying to get rid of his barricade.

"Oi, someone in there? Preferably a human being?"

That does sound like Ryouga.

Kaito comes a bit closer to the door. "How many zombies are in a 100m radius from here?"

Another loud thump. "Are you... Anyway, I killed all of them."

"Have you been bitten?"

"No."

Kaito loads his gun. "Fine. Put the things back in place and come to the highest window."

"How am I supposed to—"

"Orbital will get you in."

"Tch. Complicated as always, Kaito."

* * *

Immediately after Orbital drops Ryouga on the floor, Kaito eyes him warily.

"What?" Ryouga raises an eyebrow.

"Take your clothes off."

"This is not the time to try and—"

"I'm looking for bites. Take your clothes off."

Ryouga's gaze wanders to Kaito's gun and he sighs. "Fine."

As Ryouga takes his clothes off, knives and other weapons fall out of his pockets occasionally.

Ryouga's body, Kaito observes, looks thinner. Muscle where it's needed, but not much else.

When Ryouga starts to take off his pants, he stops in his tracks. "The infection takes 25 minutes to take over the entire body."

Kaito nods. "Yeah, so?"

"I am not infected, but I am wounded. If you choose to distrust me, restrain me for half an hour to see that for yourself."

Ryouga's eyes are sincere, but Kaito has seen the worst and he's survived for too long to die due to some stupid mistake.

Ryouga throws his pants to the side to reveal a bandage right below his knee.

"Did you even properly treat this?" Kaito looks at the surrounding skin and raises an eyebrow.

"Of course not. I was busy fighting."

Kaito nods and then pulls handcuffs out of his bag.

"Where did you get _those_ from?" Ryouga smirks.

"Probably not where _you_ considered getting them from at some point." Kaito cuffs Ryouga to the legs of the table in the corner.

"Oh? I somehow expected you to take more precautions."

"I can't treat the wound if your feet are cuffed. Now shut up." Kaito removes the bandages, ignoring Ryouga's whining. "...Orbital. I need antiseptic, water, new bandages and a wound compress."

Orbital proceeds to hand Kaito what he needs, and then Ryouga speaks up again. "I thought you were more of a mechanic and less of a doctor."

"These are the basics of first aid," Kaito hisses as has cleans the wound. "Whatever you did probably made the wound worse."

Ryouga bites his lip to not cry out. "I had to stop the bleeding, you know. It's only a superficial wound, anyway."

"Superficial? That wound could've killed you if it had gotten infected. Quit showing off and shut—"

"—What about Haruto?"

Kaito stops in his movement and glares, and Ryouga just nods. There's some kind of sadness in Ryouga's eyes, and Kaito tries, "Rio, too?"

"She took her own life. She got bitten."

Kaito nods slowly and moves on to applying the compress and the bandage. Then, almost too quietly to hear, he asks, "Did you see Yuuma and Mizael?"

"Mizael tried to save Durbe, but the building collapsed. About Yuuma," Ryouga bites his lip and then continues a little more quietly. "We got separated right after the outbreak. We were both planning to head to Heartland tower, but—"

"I see." Kaito secures the end of the bandage and cuffs Ryouga's feet together. "Time to wait."

"Any other survivors?"

"None that I know of."

* * *

As soon as half an hour has passed, Ryouga smirks. "Told you." Kaito uncuffs Ryouga carefully and throws his clothes at him.

Ryouga quickly gets his clothes back on and puts the weapons in the pockets the originally were from. "So, your goal?"

"Goal?"

"Well, you gotta have one, don't you?"

Kaito shakes his head. "Surviving should be the priority."

"Yeah but, there are barely any resources." Ryouga takes an apple from his bag. "Wouldn't it be smarter to just leave the country and see if it's safer elsewhere?"

"And live on happily?" The last word almost gets stuck in Kaito's throat.

"Yeah, something like that. Waiting for our death here accomplishes nothing."

"And how are we supposed to leave the country?"

"We can get a plane and have Orbital pilot it."

For the first time in almost 63 hours, Kaito has hope.

* * *

"What would you have done without me?" Kaito prepares his bed (a bunch of clothes) for the night.

"I would've tried to survive on a boat." Ryouga yawns and lies down next to the clothes.

"You would've died."

"Dying on the sea is better than ending up as zombie food. What about you? What would you have done without me?"

"I would've kept Orbital charged while waiting for the end." Kaito lies down and wordlessly pulls Ryouga closer.

"Eh?"

"The ground is too cold to sleep on. If I catch a cold because of you, it'll disrupt—"

"I get it, you care." Ryouga moves closer and loosely wraps one arm around Kaito. "Night."

* * *

"Oh, look, that one looks empty and not zombie-filled. Let's do this." Ryouga smirks.

They are flying in circles around a plane in an attempt to see if there are any zombies inside.

(Ryouga holds onto Kaito, and it generally just looks awkward, but it's not like zombies and dead humans can judge them anyway, and it's not like they'd care either.)

"Wait, this is too convenient," Kaito insists.

"Are you scared?"

"What?!" Kaito almost drops Ryouga.

"If you're scared—"

"—you can stay and watch the house, yeah, you said that last week already."

"Just get in there, I bet Orbital's getting dizzy."

* * *

Ryouga and Kaito have never been on a plane before, so it's up to Orbital to handle everything.

Kaito is always shaking a little, almost like he can't believe another zombie won't pop up behind him.

"Ryouga."

"Yeah?"

"Do you think Haruto would be—"

"Angry? No way. Thomas would be pissed at himself for not having but any of his movie knowledge to use. But Haruto? If anything, he's glad you're alive. The same goes for anyone else by the way, the people who might be still alive included."

"Who are you referring to?"

"Yuuma, of course. Your guilt is obvious. ...I carry it, too."

Kaito sighs and nods, but his muscles relax a little.

"Oi, Kaito."

"Yeah?"

"Brooding over eventualities that'll never happen isn't like you."

"Not being a child isn't like you."


End file.
